• Michigan’s First Night Game | The Debut as a Nocturnal Eleven (1944)

    On May 1st of this year the athletic department published a press release announcing that the 2007 game at Illinois would be played at night. The presser also listed the history of Michigan’s games in prime time. It all started in 1944 with a game under the lights at Marquette and the Blue didn’t play another for nearly 30 years. Digging further, I bought an archived copy of the 1944 Chicago Tribune which published a piece covering the game. The article provided a summary of the game and provided a glimpse at sports writing back in the day. Written by Charles Bartlett, the Tribune piece reads more like a play-by-play than a modern game summary. Here’s the headline and a small taste of Bartlett’s writing style: Call to Marquette Sports InformationI contacted the Marquette sports information department. One of the challenges in digging up data on this game is that Marquette stopped playing football in 1960. Michael Whittliff of MU suggested I try looking at the library’s collection of yearbooks. Expecting to find nothing, a review of the 1945 ‘Hilltop’ yearbook paid off big time & yielded a game photo: In case you can’t make it out, the clowns on the yearbook department added the caption “May I have the next Waltz, please?” under that photo. Bentley Museum Comes ThroughGreg…